Maryland Gov. Hogan vetoes bills that would limit state’s aid to federal immigration enforcement

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed bills Wednesday that would have banned the state and local governments from helping with certain aspects of federal immigration enforcement, deriding the measures as “sanctuary state legislation.”

One bill would have prohibited counties from being paid by the federal government to house immigration detainees. The other would have prevented federal investigators from accessing state databases and running facial recognition searches on driver’s license photos.

Hogan, a Republican, announced the vetoes from Nashville, Tennessee, where he’s attending a conference of Republican governors.

He also vetoed bills that would have removed a governor’s final say in granting parole to those serving life sentences and that would have removed syringes from the definition of illegal drug paraphernalia.

Maryland’s General Assembly passed the four bills on largely party-line votes, with mostly Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.

Three of the bills were passed with enough votes to overturn the vetoes when lawmakers are next in session, scheduled for January. The bill to decriminalize syringes passed the House of Delegates by a veto-proof margin, but the final vote in the state Senate fell one vote shy of the veto-proof threshold.

The bill regarding county jails would have barred local governments in Maryland from making deals with the federal government to house immigration detainees for profit. Opponents of these contracts argue that local governments should not be involved in, nor profit from, immigration enforcement.

The Dignity Not Detention bill was sponsored by Del. Vaughn Stewart, a Montgomery County Democrat, and includes elements of a bill sponsored by Del. Wanika Fisher, a Prince George’s County Democrat.

County governments have been under increasing pressure from residents to end their jail contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Howard County Executive Calvin Ball, a Democrat, announced he would end that county’s jail agreement just as the bill gained momentum during the final weeks of the legislative session this spring.

And officials in Worcester County — which has gotten more than half of its jail budget from a federal immigration contract — have said they know the days of such contracts were numbered. More than two dozen jail jobs could be lost there as a result.

Frederick County also has a contract to house immigration detainees at its jail.

The bill also would have banned county governments from offering financial incentives to companies that want to open private immigration jails.

And it sought to further clarify that local police and government officials can’t ask someone about their citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops, searches and arrests.

The other immigration bill, called the Maryland Driver Privacy Act, would have prohibited the state from turning over photos of individuals to federal officials for immigration investigations, and barred the feds’ access to certain government databases. It also would have prevented immigration investigators from using facial recognition searches of photos held by the state, such as driver’s license photos.

Top officials from the Maryland Department of Transportation lobbied against the bill, arguing it would make it more difficult to coordinate with the federal government on homeland security, particularly at the Port of Baltimore and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Groups focused on immigrants, civil liberties and progressive causes said the practice of federal government surveillance of driving records is problematic. The ACLU of Maryland argued in written testimony that “this type of surveillance only fuels ICE’s deportation machine.”

Democratic Del. Dana Stein of Baltimore County, the bill’s sponsor, noted the state created “second-tier” driver’s licenses for noncitizens and those who lack documentation several years ago so that those individuals could have identification and drive legally. But, he wrote, the state didn’t anticipate that the federal government would use those records “for the purpose of deporting people who have committed no crime.”

The immigrants’ advocacy group CASA wrote that the bill “is critical to fulfill the Maryland General Assembly’s promise to undocumented Marylanders that they could safely get a driver’s license.”

In his veto message to legislative leaders, Hogan wrote that the state and local governments have an obligation to assist federal law enforcement.

“I remain steadfast in my opposition to any legislative or regulatory efforts that would hinder cooperation with federal law enforcement and make Maryland a sanctuary state,” Hogan wrote.

The bill that would remove the governor’s final say on parole decisions would have represented a significant curtailing of the governor’s authority.

Under current law, when the Maryland Parole Commission recommends that those serving life should be paroled, the governor can veto the decision.

The new process would have required at least six of the 10 parole commissioners to vote in favor of an inmate’s parole, a change from the current practice of having only two or three commissioners consider each parole request.

Supporters of removing the governor’s authority, including chief sponsor Sen. Delores Kelley, a Baltimore County Democrat, say it would depoliticize the process, leaving it in the hands of commissioners, who closely review each case.

Hogan has argued that he’s allowed more inmates serving life sentences to be paroled than his recent predecessors, including 34 with standard requests and 11 who requested medical parole. He also commuted life sentences of 23 inmates, according to his office.

The governor’s role in parole is not about politics, his office argued in written testimony, but about accountability to the public.

“The governor’s oversight duty in the current system makes policy on these sensitive issues responsive to the people,” his office wrote.

The fourth vetoed bill would remove syringes from the definition of illegal drug paraphernalia in Maryland’s criminal law. Hogan called it “dangerous.”

“This bill would permit drug dealers to stockpile large quantities of paraphernalia, such as needles and syringes, and sell it to vulnerable individuals suffering from addiction,” the governor wrote in his veto message.

Supporters of the measure argued that when it’s a crime to have a syringe, it’s less likely that drug users will have enough clean needles and syringes — creating a health hazard that can spread infections.

The bill’s chief sponsor, Democratic Sen. Jill P. Carter of Baltimore, has said some needle-exchange programs have run into issues, with staff and participants charged with possession of paraphernalia. Though the charges are often dropped in court, being arrested and having a criminal record is problematic.

Maryland lawmakers passed more than 800 measures during their 90-day session that concluded in April. Hogan has until Tuesday to make decisions on those he hasn’t yet considered. He has the option to veto them, sign them into law or allow them to become law without his signature.

Already, Hogan has signed nearly 300 bills into law, including measures that: grant more than $1 billion in pandemic financial aid and tax breaks, create rules for the newly legal industry of gambling in sports, repeal the pro-Confederacy state song, allow bars and restaurants to continue offering carryout and delivery of alcohol, open the door to allow college athletes to profit from endorsements, set rules for compensating those who’ve been wrongly imprisoned, send hundreds of millions of dollars to historically Black universities and restructure the Maryland Environmental Service following a scandal over perks for its former director.

Among the measures awaiting a decision from the governor is the Transit Safety and Investment Act, which sets minimum funding levels for mass transit in the state’s construction budget. The goal is to catch up on backlogged maintenance projects.

And county government officials are watching to see if Hogan signs or vetoes a bill that would allow them to replace flat, across-the-board local income tax rates with graduated rates.

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